Internet Marketing

What is Internet Marketing?

Most
people have heard of Internet marketing at one point or the other but don’t
really understand what it is or how it works. In this article, I am going to
explain what Internet marketing is all about and how it works.

First,
let us take the words one after the other.

Internet:
Think of Internet as all (well, almost all) the computers in the world
connected together. That is to say, all the information you access online
are stored on a computer or computers somewhere in the world. Those
computers are generally referred to as servers.

The term we
always use when accessing information online (i.e. browsing)
is just a process by which those information stored on a computer can be
accessed.

Marketing:
In
simple terms, marketing is the process of advertising products
and services. For example, if you post pictures on a website about a body
spray, cloths or shoes that you sell, you are advertising goods. But is
you can repair computers and you let people know about it using any
medium, you are advertising services.

With
the explanation above, we can see that Internet marketing is just a way
of using the Internet to advertise your goods (i.e. the products you produce or
sell such as cream, soap, electronics, etc) and services (this can be your what
you do best such as car repairs, driving, electrical wiring, etc) with the aim
of getting customers who can buy them or individuals or organisations that are
interested in hiring you for your services. The internet has made it pretty easy to take offline businesses online and enjoy the benefits of online marketing. Students should also know that starting a blog as a student gives many advantages and online marketing can provide all that.

CHANNELS USED IN
INTERNET MARKETING

Many
people keep asking this question; How do I advertise on the Internet? Well, you
have found the right place for your answer.Most
of these channels are free which means you don’t have to pay a dime before you
can advertise your goods and service on them.

These
channels that people use to market their products on the Internet are many but
in this article, I will discuss just a few.

1. Social Media

2. Personal Websites

3. YouTube

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social
media channels used in marketing products on the Internet include but in any
way not limited to;

FACEBOOK

· Facebook
(free): Facebook has made advertising a little bit easier for us as we can
post pictures of our products and even videos of the products on the website
and share it with friends who in turn share it with their friend and your
advertisement might end up been seen around the globe since every country on
the planet uses Facebook. You can just take a picture of the product with
your phone, write a description of it and your contact details and post it on
Facebook and potential customers will read about it and contact you if they are
interested in buying your product. You can even advertise your services the
same way.

· Twitter
(free): Twitter is also a free social media tool that most people use
today to advertise their goods and service. All you need to do is create an
account on twitter website, make friends there and post your adverts so your
friends can share them and also share it

WEBSITES AND BLOGS

Websites
have proven to be a very effective Internet marketing tool. The cost of owning
a website these days has drastically reduced because of the emergence of many
website hosting companies and the competition between them. this has made starting a blog an easy task to accomplish.

Owning
a website these days can cost as much as low as $0 per month to over $
20 per month depending on the type of website, security, uptime and some
other factors. For more information, read how to own a websitewhere we have explained
in details what you need to have your own website. You can also read on how to have a website for free.

You
can advertise on your website in four simple steps;

I.
Buy a domain name(website address e.g.www.yourcompany.com)
and get a hosting plan for your website

II. Put your adverts on the website

III. Share it with world

IV. Sit back and watch the internet do the magic

YOUTUBE

Most
of us like to learn by getting visual explanations on how thing work or how we
can carry out a particular task. YouTube is a website that gives us the
opportunity to make videos, put it on the site so people looking for
explanation on something and would like to see it done can see the videos and
contact you if they are interested in it.

All
you need to do is create an account on YouTube, make a video and upload it to
the website.

Internet
marketing in Africa and the world in general has grown tremendously in the past few years. Anyone
willing to take advantage of it should go right ahead. You may become the next
internet marketing millionaire.